SLWTF is a superb travelogue style journal, visiting some of what SL has to offer. ("Reality Service Island is worth a look, if only because… well, hey, giant metal hand, right?") Of particular note is Black Knight, a roleplaying group set on a richly detailed spacestation; it's Japanese in origin, but it seems folks from around the world are involved.

If you're going to FC, you'll be able to see a collaboration of artists' depictions of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac on display in the art show - here's Blotch's entrancing sheep [safe]. Are those horns not hypnotic? Trace the ridges back and forth, back and forth..

kuma_chan uncovered an original 1970s episode of Rupert the Bear here and here. Well worth a peek, even if only for the opening theme. ^_^

Now this does sound like a promising bit of projector tech. At 5 cubic cm, it's intended for integration into other devices, as well as standalone units, for times when you'd like a bigger picture than your iPod or phone can offer, but without the need to carry around an "actual" projector. It works using red, green, and blue lasers, eliminating the need for any lens, and raster scans à la CRT, simplifying the micromirror down from the DLP-style chips with one mirror per pixel, to just a single mirror.

How will it compare to LG Philips' flexible LCD? The version they'll be showing off this year is 14.3", 1280x800, 24-bit color. (Whether genuinely 24-bit remains to be seen, given most, if not all, "8bpp" LCDs actually use some degree of dithering, as I recall)

Meanwhile, in the fruity orchards of Cupertino, AI claims the company's working on a keyboard with OLED displays in each keycap, each driven by a microcontroller, presumably taking care of decoding something like an IIC serial bitstream. One point which perhaps the patent filing addresses is how to reliably maintain a connection between the keyboard PCB and the moving keycap. Even aside from internationalisation uses, it's easy to see such keyboards being very handy in apps with heavy usage of shortcuts, let alone some games. (All assuming it actually happens, of course - a patent filing does not a product make. It seems inevitable, though, whoever manages to push them out in volume first, pushing the volume cost well below the Optimus)

Courtesy of tania, a new occasional webcomic, Kiskaloo. The artwork style will be somewhat familiar to most people. =:)

Here's a good interview with Jopsy Pendragon, creator of the Particle Laboratory, one of SL's premiere resources for learning about creating particle systems.

You might want to check your parents haven't signed up with Sears' "My SHC Community", as they've apparently decided to do a Sony - they install a mofo spyware package. Its functions? Oh, nothing much.. just monitoring where you browse, inspecting the data sent and received, including the pace and style of any text entered, as well as the header section of personal email.

If you're in the US, identify as penicularly enhanced (or handicapped, as depending on outlook =:), and Jewish, maybe you'd like to assist this individual in their linguistic research. All ages and genders welcome - it's simply that <30 females have already been helpfully forthcoming.

Obviously, the (virtual) reality's yet to be seen, but Clever Zebra sounds like it could be very helpful indeed for SL designers wanting to offer building services, whether for free, or as a paid service.

SETI@Home needs more volunteers, due to additional receivers now online at Arecibo. 'According to project scientist Eric Korpela, the new data amounts to 300 gigabytes per day, or 100 terabytes (100,000 gigabytes) per year, about the amount of data stored in the U.S. Library of Congress.'

If you feel like offering your support to the striking writers: 'UnitedHollywood is asking you to shoot a video showing us how you would get the AMPTP to make a fair deal. Videos can be up to four minutes long and any genre from comedy, drama, mockumentary or even commercial-like, and must contain the phrase "fighting for the future." The only other stipulation is the last line of the video must be "We're all on the same page."

Paul Haggis will be one of the judges. Need I say Due South? Crash? I didn't think so. I heard that a writer/producer I once worked with, upon learning of this contest, asked, "Aren't we just teaching people to come and take our jobs?" To which I would say, "If they're good enough to take our jobs, they should have 'em."'

For anyone in NYC, a charitable event in the form of the Snuffy Animal Dance on January 30: "Come dressed as an animal....The sexiest animal wins a 2 night stay and dinner for 2 at the Emerson Resort and Spa."

Homebrew VoIP for the iPod touch & iPhone. You'll need an external mic for the former, as it doesn't incorporate one. Meanwhile, next week's CES will see Sony announce US availability of Skype for the PSP.

Torchwood's second season's been confirmed as starting in the UK on BBC 2 on Wednesday, Jan 16, and in the US on BBC America on Saturday, Jan 26. In the UK, it's worth noting that there'll be a repeat, edited for a pre-watershed audience. (Is there really still a concept of a younger audience watershed?)

Ooh, Doodles just noted that Dark Natasha will be handling Rat. Not sure I've seen any of her rodents, but her lapines are easily amongst my top favorites, for that anthro-yet-feral look to their physique.

Have you played Loco Roco? Definitely one of the best PSP titles - like Katamari Damacy, quite an inspired idea. Uniquely Japanese. ^_^ (Soundtrack included - it's all insanely catchy stuff like that)

That projector really could be big, so to speak, if it succumbs to volume pricing pushing the unit cost down. Imagine if they could cram a future revision into smartphones! (Cue watching The Daily Show on the back of someone else standing in the bus =:) It does seem peculiarly difficult a matter, indeed - I've read of plenty of such accounts on the PowerList, where Windows has decided it's just not going to play unless you ask it really nicely, with extra sugar on top. (Scene of Flanders preparing cocoa for Bart comes to mind..)

Actually, virtual meetings do seem to be starting to take place, at long last - IBM's been using SL for such, avoiding the need to shuttle people around the world quite so routinely. Seems like a win for everyone (though I admit, I love travel, though that's not been much in evidence in the last year or two. *sigh*), saving the company money, and avoiding yet another few thousand air miles of carbon dioxide output. (Fascinating seeing Boeing cooperating in field trials of algae-produced aviation fuel - could be quite a promising line of research)